Swiss-Danish designer Carsten Jorgensen has designed this cozy and loving interior for smith&hsu – a contemporary tea brand based in Taipei, Taiwan. Its peerless loose teas, collected from around the world, are a testament to its deep rage for both Chinese and British tea culture. Beside its carefully assorted tea collection, smith&hsu offers a huge range of tea tools and homemade gourmet food. Combining wooden furnishings with a concrete floor may seem odd, but Carsten Jorgensen has managed to merge these two seemingly disparate elements into an exotic atmosphere for smith&hsu’s patrons.

According to the smith&hsu teahouse, the two materials chosen by Carsten Jorgensen, wood and concrete, “reflect the degree of a superior party and trigger the guests’ aesthetic sensibility”. The new two-storey teahouse boasts cubed shelves filled with jars tea and second-hand books, as well in that wooden display boxes that are suspended from the ceiling. The wooden display boxes downstairs are arranged into grids along one wall, with some suspended from the ceiling. Upstairs, the cubes line every wall and are diagonally staggered with gaps in between. The second floor is a dining area, while the lower floor is used for the tea shop, offering loose teas from around the world and expertly crafted tea tools.

Architects: Oyler Wu Collaborative
Location: Taipei, Taiwan
Team: Oyler, Jenny Wu, Chris Eskew, Matt Evans, Richard Lucero, Sanjay Sukie
Year: 2011
Photos: Oyler Wu Collaborative

Anemone is an architectural creation designed by Oyler Wu Collaborative aimed at weaving together aesthetic experience again tactile engagement, a combination generally considered off limits within the world of contemporary art.

All too often, art installations are considered affected, almost sacred objects; while they are meant to be appreciated for their aesthetic charm, they feature little in terms of human interaction. In other words, they are meant to be seen, not felt. Recognizing that human agreement is one of the smallest factors in creating a rich experience, Anemone has been designed with the idea of interaction as one of its key design objectives.

Upon best glance, the piece is meant to be viewed as a relatively simple, elegant object, with subtle undulations that pelerine its walls and smooth competence corners. Given a closer look, however, one discovers that, like the bristling tentacles of its namesake, the sea anemone, the surface is actually a build-up of thousands of transparent willing rods.  Each of the rods is inserted to gradually changing depths, creating the undulating effect. This undulation is meant to evoke a sense of curiosity about its construction, use, tactility, and materially, encouraging different forms of interaction. Elements are designed with that interaction in mind, incorporating a plane wall that might be brushed, and benches used due to seating. In the middle of this art work is a table/bed like element that sits below a cantilevered shelter of bristles.

Convention Center, Taichung, Taiwan was opened in 2009. The unique structure – Vertical Circulation and Enclosure System goes beyond the tradiotional architecture and propose an extraordinary vision, which stems from the East’svnaturalistic philosophy.
Holistic integration attitude and space order are the key words, which define the idea of the first project of MAD architects in Taiwan.

The urge for unification and harmonization in the relation between human and nature is the base line of the Convention Center, where the open courtyards between the separate ‘mountains’ are integrated into a natural sequence of outdoor spaces. This approach to sustainable development is based not on technology, but on traditional philosophy and aesthetics.

The resort is positioned on the banks of Sun Moon Lake, in one of the country’s most stunningly beautiful scenic areas, The Crystal Resort Sun Moon Lake provides a timeless world of tranquility enhanced by distinctive design, fine dining and phenomenal lake views.

As the early morning mist lifts from the water, head out by boat to Lalu Island. Or, cycle around the lake and visit the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village, the Peacock Garden and the Cihen Pagoda. Return to the hotel where the best place to enjoy the mesmerizing beauty of the lake, by moonlight, is from the Crystal Lakeview Restaurant, over dinner.

The hotel offer a range of room categories for you to choose from. There is also an exceptional fine-dining restaurant showcases Western and Chinese cooking in a classic setting with the emphasis on fresh Jersey produce.

In the vicinity of the hotel there are a numerous load of temples including Wenwu Temple, pagodas, Peacock Garden, Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village, Sun Monn Springs, Guanghua Island, Shueishe Wharf, Ita Thao Wharf, Thao culture, firefly watching in April and May. You can also go fishing, boating, cycling, hiking, bird watching, and mountain hiking trails. Location: A four-hour drive from Taipei in Nantou County, central Taiwan.

The  house  is  situated  on  an  old  Japanese  cherry-farm  in  the  Datun –mountains  of  North  Taiwan. It  is  designed  as  a  vessel  to  react  on  the demanding  wind,  flooding  and  heat  conditions  on  the  site. The  house  is  a  stick  raised  above  the  ground  in  order  to let  the  flood waters  run  under  it. The  different  spaces  are  connected  to  a  flexible movement  within  the  axis  of  outdoor  and  indoor  functions. The  smaller bathroom  and  kitchen  unit  functions  as  a  kicker  stabilizing  the  wooden structure  during  the  frequent  typhoons  and  earthquakes.

The  house  is  not  strong  or  heavy  –  it  is  weak  and  flexible. It  is  also  not closing  the  environment  out, but  designed  to  give  the  farmers  a  needed shelter.

The  bio-climatic  architecture  is  designed  to  catch  the  cool  breeze  from the  Datun  river  during  the  hot  days  and  to  let  in  the  small  winds circulating  on  the  site  between  the  fresh  water  reservoir  pond  and  the farmlands. A  fire  place  is  used  during  the  winter  for  heating   and  for cooking  tea. In  connection  with  the  bathroom  is  a  small  sauna.

Today Taiwan boats of an incredible solar-powered stadium that produce 100% of its electricity from photovoltaic technology!  The stadium had a dragon shape with 50,000 seats and 8,844 solar panels that illuminate the track and field with 3,300 lux. The stadium is brand new and will officially open its doors later this year to welcome the 2009 World Games.

The architect is Toyo Ito, whose design negates the energy drain with a stunning 14,155 sq meter solar roof that is able to provide enough energy to power the stadium’s 3,300 lights and two jumbo vision screens. To illustrate the incredible power of this system, officials ran a test this January and found that it took just six minutes to power up the stadium’s entire lighting system!Wow

The stadium also features additional public green spaces, bike paths, sports parks, and an ecological pond. Additionally, all of the plants occupying the area before construction were transplanted.

The stadium not only does the solar system provide electricity during the games, but the surplus energy will also be sold during the non-game period. When the stadium is not being used, the Taiwanese government plans to feed the extra energy into the local grid, where it will meet almost 80% of the neighboring area’s energy requirements. Besides the stadium will generate 1.14 million KWh per year, preventing the release of 660 tons of carbon dioxide into atmosphere annually.

 Cubic House, Rotterdam, Netherlands 

One of the major attractions in the Rotterdam architecture are the Cubic Houses. The cubes are tilted and sit on hexagon-shaped structures.These are 39 cube-shaped dwellings, built in 1984 by Piet Biom, which are still inhabited. The living areas are divisions into three levels – the triangle-shaped lower level contains the living area, the middle level contains the sleeping area and a bathroom, and the top level is used a bedroom and relax place, offers a great view since the apex.

This is an abandoned resort in Sanjhih - small town on the North coast of Taiwan, that locals call “UFO House”. It was built as a holiday resort in the 1970s, by a keeper of a rubber company. It was costs 7-8 hundred million new Taiwan dollars. They planed to make it 5 stars resort hotel with the first yacht dock in the North coast of Taiwan.  However, the rubber company closed down in the energy crisis in 1980.

Is this real? What do you think?

SHARE AND ENJOY

There is nothing Taiwanese about the Astoria Cafe in Taipei. And that is what made it special. The place was opened over a half century ago, on the west side of Taipei. It is a bakery, which sold fresh bread and homemade cakes downstairs. On upstairs level, it served dark bitter Russian coffee.

The capital of Taiwan also has unfolded history. Business boomed. Taiwan bet early on high-tech manufacturing and the island was gadget maker to the world.

Taipei these days is full with narrow avenues, tiled facades and crowds of street vendors, office towers, shopping malls, restaurants and foreign boutiques sprouted from the city's new glass-and-steel east side. But there are echoes everywhere of the turmoil that shaped the city and signs of an uncertain future.

In any boomtown, things vanish and other things take their place. But something more has happened in Taipei. Near the National Taiwan university there're a cluster of old Japanese-era houses. They're astonishing.The side street are crooked and lovely and lined with bookstores, cafes with tiny round tables and boutique sellingJapanese street fashion.

Taipei's shiny east sideis hometo the world's tallest building. Taipei 101. But Chiang Kai- shek's memorial casts a longer shadow. It sits in the middle of a sprawling walled garden, towering over a severe plaza that spans several city blocks.

Fo Guang Shan is situated in the suburbs of Kaoshiung. It is the largest Buddhist sanctuary in Kaoshiung County. Founded by Venerable Master Hsing Yun in 1967, Fo Guang Shan is the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan. Besides the main shrine at Fo Guang Shan, its biggest attraction would be the Great Buddha Land, surrounded by 480 golden Buddha statues, a sight worth visiting. The Buddhist Cultural Museum has a collection of thousands of modern and ancient Buddhist works of arts. Buddhist works of art are invaluable skillful means for attracting people to Buddhism. Visiting this museum has helped many people to believe.

Around 5,000 people, including hundreds of monks and lay followers from overseas, sit listening in a newly-built meditation hall. Some have spent the night sleeping on mats, waking in the cold dawn to join the morning rituals. There are dzen meditation classes from their organization in Taipei, so they were excited to have us to the HQ and planned a gala affair (for which we were terribly under dressed). And for 2 days, we were followed around by an entourage – cellphone nuns, photographer monks, video camera monks, elevator door-holding nuns. No talk of compassion, ending suffering, or enlightenment. It was, “Enter, bow to the Buddha, soundlessly go to your seat, be seated without your chair making noise, join your palms for the chanting and with each bite recite inside your head: do all good, stop all evil, deliver all sentient beings”. Other attractions include a lantern festival showcasing 60 lanterns with Buddhist characteristics and an Artistic Exhibition featuring art works such as stone collections, carvings, paintings and pottery by over 100 local artists.

Today there are over 200 branches of Fo Guang Shan throughout the five continents. Together, Fo Guang Shan strives to serve the congregations and communities by providing educational opportunities, sponsoring cultural events, engaging in charity work, and conducting worship and meditation services. Guided by the principles of Humanistic Buddhism and the ideals of the Buddhist Pure Land, its ultimate goal is to foster peace and harmony among all people of the world. Humanistic Buddhism recognizes the compatibility of the eight schools of Mahayana, with Ch’an and Pure Land being the most prevalent at the Monastery.

The National Palace Museum (Chinese is an art gallery and museum in Tapei, Republic of China, Taiwan) containing artifacts of ancient China. It should not be confused with the Palace Museum (note the absence of the word “National”), which is the Forbidden City in Beijing. Both institutions derive from the same original institution, which was split in two as a result of the Chinese Civil War .

The National Palace Museum is considered one of world’s five great museums, along the Louvre, the British Museum, America’s Metropolitan Museum, and Russia’s Hermitage. Its artifacts constitute a magnificent part of the Chinese cultural heritage and it is a must-see spot for foreigners visiting Taiwan. Artifacts at the National Palace Museum span almost the entire five millennia of Chinese history, and most were once in the Imperial Collection. More than 700,000 items are on display, many of which were taken from Beijing’s Forbidden City, truly reflects the rich cultural heritage of Chinese civilization.

The “Jade Cabbage”, a piece of jade carved into the shape of a head of cabbage, with an insect attached. The fame attached to this piece is due to the masterful utilisation of natural colour variations in the jade to recreate colour variations in the cabbage. The “meat-shaped stone”, a piece of agate, the strata of which are cleverly used to create a likeness of a piece of pork cooked in soy sauce.
Imperial China ceased to exist with termination of the power of the last Qing emperor Pu Yi in 1911- though he did not formally abdicate until February 24, 1912 — and the proclamation of the Republic of China. The last emperor, however, was allowed to continue living with the accumulated treasures of the centuries in “his’” Forbidden City until November 1924 when he was unceremoniously expelled.

There are good tours in different languages and for the handicapped, starting from the information desk in the main lobby. The tours will run even if only one person shows up. A multimedia slide show is presented daily in both Chinese and English languages. In October, there are also special showings of rare and fragile artifacts – and this is the best time to visit.

Taipei 101 is the only travel destination in Taipei where it is unnecessary to provide you with the exact address. Next to Warner village it’s just a little taller than Taipei’s world trade center. The tallest building and Taipei financial center is developing since Taipei 101 construction is completed and the tower is open for business and commerce.The design of Taipei 101 borrows heavily from Chinese culture. Both the building’s interior and exterior incorporate the Chinese pagoda form and the shape of bamboo flowers. The lucky number eight, which means blooming or success, is represented by the eight clearly delineated exterior sections of the building.
How nice it would be to have a flat on the top floor!

The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall was built to the commemorate the life of the leader of Nationalist China who moved his government, the Republic of China, into exile on Taiwan after his defeat at the hands of Mao Zedong in 1949. Chiang had served as the leader of a major segment of China from the 1920s until his death on April 5, 1975.

The groundbreaking for the memorial hall and park was held on October 31, 1976. Construction began a year later. It was officially opened on April 5, 1980. The park covers 62 acres with nicely landscaped gardens, ponds, walkways and exercise areas. The Memorial Hall, in gleaming white marble is topped by an octagonal roof of brilliant blue-glazed tiles that reaches a height of 250 feet. The blue-glazed tile can also be seen on the major archways that lead into the grounds. The memorial statue and hall is on the upper level while the lower level of the structure contains an exhibition center and a library.

Bronze statue of Chiang Kai-shek. The inscription on the wall behind the statue reads
“Ethics, Democracy, Science,” the essence of his professed “Three Principles of the People.”